Quaviria
Overview On the island known as Lumire, great evergreen forests grow up steep mountainsides. There amongst the trees live the Elan; eight foot tall elk that feed on the tall grasses of the island. Each year, the herds move from their winter home in the western mountains down to the shores of Lake Quas in the summer. Tending to these beasts are the men known as the Elk-Lords of Quaviria, a people as tall as the creatures on which they depend. Quavirians respect the mighty Elan above all other creatures, using their milk and meat for food, their hide for building, and their bones for tools and weapons. The nomadic people follow the Elan throughout the year, until the winter solstice celebration at their sole settled city, Quaviria. Lying atop a mist-shrouded peak, the city is a holy site of pilgrimage for all Lords. The Lords are tasked with bringing gifts to the priests of Elana, who maintain Quaviria despite harsh wind and snow. In exchange, the priests of Elana offer their wisdom and bestow the blessings of the goddess upon the Lords and their herds. Ruling Structure The leadership of Quaviria is particularly decentralized, having equal power split between a collection of High Priests and the Tribal Lords. Both serve important roles in Quavirian culture, though the rulings of the High Priests are more overarching than the laws of each individual lord. The title of Elk Lord of a clan is one passed down from the eldest member of each generation to the next, with equal opportunity for both women and men. The Lords control the incredibly important day-to-day maintenance of their respective tribes, including who tend to which Elan, where the herd will migrate to next, and what foods should be harvested in which particular season. They also handle internal disputes and enforce all laws and rulings of both themselves and the High Priests. That being said, each tribe may have different rules and customs depending on the priorities of their leaders. For example, the Kola tribe favors a maintenance of the natural beauty of Lumire, and replants each tree that they cut down. Other tribes such as the Norikii, may have celebrations to honor the death of an ancestor that is not followed in other tribes. All of them, however, respect the rulings of the High Priests. At the same time, the Lords are not completely subservient to their religious heads. It is the final decision of the Lord of each tribe whether or not to send troops to war, as well as which of their tribe becomes part of the clergy. Most of the time, they follow the will of the Priests anyway, out of a traditional respect for them as representatives of Elana, but they reserve the right to withhold manpower if they so wish. The power of the High Priests is a much more vague and transitive subject. As a collective body, the High Priests are meant to represent the literal will of Elana, and their decisions are made with finality. Individually, they bring to the convocation a great difference of opinions and ideas, which are debated heavily behind closed doors. Each High Priest is selected for their intelligence, charisma, or faith and taken from their daily clerical duties throughout the nation to begin a rigorous education and training program. For many, this will be the last time they speak to their families. Once within the capital, they must prove themselves with a worthwhile contribution to science, culture, or the faith during their time within The Vault. If they fail to produce a notable discovery within a span of fifteen years, they are offered the choice of the Lovian Penance or a death at sea. Those who graduate surrender their names and become a High Priest, taking part in all of the most holy ceremonies and important discussions. The High Priests maintain their power and wealth in two major ways. Firstly, they are the sole source of taxation in Quaviria, taking tithes from each tribe, as determined by the mendicant priests. This allows them to stockpile vast amounts of food, handmade goods, and rare minerals and ores which the average Quavirian would find once in their life. This then feeds into their second exclusive power- the right to conduct trade with foreign entities. The High Priests, since the discovery of foreign powers, have traded away much of the produce of Quaviria to exchange for rare materials for experimentation in The Vault, as well as precious metals with higher foreign value. This has allowed them to become vastly more powerful in international relations compared to the Elk Lords, though the Lords maintain the dominant politicians on Lumire. The Faith The sole goddess of Quaviria is the Elan-antlered woman, Elana (meaning The Embodiment of Light). Depicted as a motherly figure with brilliant red hair, Elana is the source of all things holy to Quaviria and the mother of the Elan. Worship of Elana revolves around the proper maintenance of the herd, respecting the will of the priests and Lords, and the complete dedication to that which is deemed evil. This evil may come in all shapes and sizes, from the superstitious hatred of the ocean shared by all Quavirians to aliens descended on a comet. However, the source of these evils is always the same- Calos. Calos is the source of every evil that a Quavirian can imagine, and goes by many names because of this. He is known as the Demon of the Unseen, the Master of the Darkness, the Lurker in the Depths, and the Sire of Wyverns. While many beasts and unknowns are claimed to come from Calos, the most iconic are these wyverns- mighty scaled beasts with wingspans often of forty feet or more, which live within the mountain caves of Lumire. To fight a wyvern is to fight Calos himself, and is often done as a kind of dedication to Elana. In reality, Calos is more of a personification of Quaviria's fear of the dark and the unknown. That which is difficult to understand is quickly labelled as the will of Calos, making The Vault beneath Quaviria proper the only place on the island that science can advance uninhibited. Similarly, the lack of public information about foreign lands often means that undesirable nations can be claimed by the High Priests as agents of Calos, reason enough for any crusade. While the Calos may or may not exist, the existence of Elana is a certainty. As Quaviria has developed as an ever more religious nation, miracles have begun to occur both at home during peacetime as well as during wars abroad. They range from simple things such as favorable winds for the ornithopters when there ought not be, to more major occurrences such as great walls of stone rising from the ground to protect Quavirian troops. The evolving power of Elana is an apparent and important part of Quaviria. The Lovian Penance The Lovian Penance is a form of ritual suicide committed with some regularity within Quaviria, often in response to some sort of extreme failure. Its name originates from the now-defunct Lovian tribe, who gained the ire of Elana after a series of heretical misconducts. They at first had attempted to begin finishing instead of tending to the Elan, a practice which earned them a harsh punishment from the High Priests- the tribe was ordered to head into the mountains north of Quaviria proper and return having slain a wyvern. Those that returned spoke of a harsh storm and a trio of wyverns who ripped apart their hunting party. The only recourse left to the Lovians was a sacrifice, a sacrifice of their own lives, which was assured by the High Priests to send their souls not to wander, but instead to join the brilliant Light of Elana. Since then, the Lovian Penance continues to be handed out as both a sort of threat by the High Priests as well as a benevolent final chance at redemption. The Tribes * Stellas * Molner * Norikii * Thurii * Yanil * Kola * Quaviria (Priests) * Elana (Orphans) Category:The Peoples of Nationbuilder V __FORCETOC__